100th Anniversary Ludwig Classic Maple

zambizzi

Platinum Member
Here's what I'm playing these days. I love the signature Ludwig sound, being so distinct and recognizable...as big, fat, warm, and woody. I had two LCM kits prior to this but both had 14" deep bass drums, which I didn't care for...both were lucky finds on eBay at incredible deals. I'm happy to have exactly what I want in finish and sizes now.

I ordered these from Shane at Just Drums (a member here) and couldn't be happier. Entirely built-to-order, custom - they arrived at my door exactly four weeks after placing the order.

The drums are flawless and sound incredible....and the looks, wow! My only (small) complaint was that I had to modify the bass drum hoops to fit anything aside from Ludwig Weathermaster heads, which suck beyond words. However, it was easy and I did it on my lunch hour last Thursday.

Specs:

22x18" bass drum
16x16" floor tom
12x10" tom
14x6.5 Black Beauty snare w/ tube lugs

...all bear the 100th. Anniversary badges, which are beautiful. They're embossed and have a dark, brushed finish...very classy! Large, Classic Lugs all around.

Remo Smooth White PowerStroke 3's on both sides of the kick, 4" hole in the resonant head. I also used acetone to remove the Remo logo from the reso head so I could put the vintange Ludwig vinyl decal on there.

Remo Coated Ambassadors on tom and snare batters, clears on bottom (hazy on snare).

Using Vic Firth SD9 Drivers these days and liking them a lot.

Cymbals are all Sabian:


21" HHX Groove Ride
19" Fierce Crash
19" Paragon Chinese (with 7" Alu Bell on top)
17" HHX Evolution Crash
14" AAX X-Celerator Hats
10" Paragon Splash

Hardware is all DW (except Tama snare stand and Roc-n-Soc throne):

5000 Accelerator single kick pedal
5500 Hi-Hat Stand
2x 9900 Double Tom Stands - all cymbals are on these two stands w/ 5 Dog Bone arms.

Mics are all Shure (3x SM57 for overhead and snare, Beta 52 on kick)

Enjoy!
 

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Oh God....

This is nice. This is really nice.
 
Simply WOW, beautiful kit. Classic setup and just a great looking kit. Jealousy running rampant, actually just happy for you.

Enjoy!!

Jack
 
I love your new kit! I love the finish. My last maple Ludwig kit was almost the same lacquer finish. I found A Pearl kit on e-Bay that looks just like the one you recently posted pics of. I'm truly surprised about the bass drum hoop not able to fit any other major head company. I never heard of such a thing. Is this something they are doing on all kits these days or was it just an error in the manufacturing?
 
very nice kit

luckily for us you werent naked when you took the snare picture :)
 
I believe that if you could have your meals delivered to you, there would never be a reason to leave that room!
 
Wise choice, Zambizzi! Beautiful kit. Fat and Flawless indeed!

Much success and happy drumming!

You too, are oart of the family!!

Pat
 
So... Back to Ludwigs again. ;) The kit looks great. Nice color and wood grain. The badges look cool too.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but everytime I see one of your kits the hardware just looks like a train wreck. The dog bones go every which way and really clutters up the overall beauty of the kits you've owned.

I'd sell off the double tom stands and get a couple of 9000 cymbal stands and run clamps off of them for tom mounts and addition cymbals/percusion.

I dunno. Maybe it's just me.

Again, that's a great looking kit, and I sure don't mean to take any wind out of your sails.

Take care.
 
Very nice! Congratulations on a great set of drums, quite stunning.
 
Gorgeous set, really really stunning. 1 month you say? It would be a pleasant suprise if my Legacy Classic's came that quick. Heres to hoping.
 
Very nice.......like the other 2o230432842304189032 kits that you have had. What happened to the Pearls? Do you still have them or did you sell them? I thought that you were getting another Unix?
 
Thanks for checking them out, guys.

Sirwill said:
I never heard of such a thing. Is this something they are doing on all kits these days or was it just an error in the manufacturing?

The answer from Ludwig was that they've made their hoops in the same molds for decades - basically telling me "tough". I personally think this is a bad move on their part and I'm sure it generates plenty of complaints. But, who am I to tell Ludwig how to do business. I was very unhappy w/ the kick drum until I made the mod myself. Now I couldn't be happier w/ the sound. So, all is well in the end. I'm going to order either a 20" or a 26" add-on kick this year...I don't mind doing the mod again on another pair of hoops.

klopee said:
luckily for us you werent naked when you took the snare picture :)

Ha! I noticed that afterward, too. Good eye!

Pat Petrillo said:
Wise choice, Zambizzi! Beautiful kit. Fat and Flawless indeed!

Much success and happy drumming!

You too, are oart of the family!!

Pat

Thanks Pat! Time to get to work on my "hands, grooves, and fills". And, what a great family to be a part of!

Steady Freddy said:
So... Back to Ludwigs again. ;) The kit looks great. Nice color and wood grain. The badges look cool too.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but everytime I see one of your kits the hardware just looks like a train wreck. The dog bones go every which way and really clutters up the overall beauty of the kits you've owned.

I'd sell off the double tom stands and get a couple of 9000 cymbal stands and run clamps off of them for tom mounts and addition cymbals/percusion.

I dunno. Maybe it's just me.

Again, that's a great looking kit, and I sure don't mean to take any wind out of your sails.

For sure...Ludwig is *the* classic American drum company, as far as I'm concerned. Nothing else sounds like Ludwig drums. Thinking back on the drums I've tried out, this was my favorite sound. Maybe it was all those hours of listening to Bonzo, Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell, etc. - while other kids were headbanging to Nirvana?

I actually agree about the looks of the hardware. The DW stands and dogbones hide the drums quite a bit and look pretty chaotic. I guess I chose utility over aesthetics. I can set two stands down and all of my cymbals and my 12" tom are in place without a fuss. I wish it looked better...but it is pretty simple to setup.

White Rabbbit said:
1 month you say? It would be a pleasant suprise if my Legacy Classic's came that quick. Heres to hoping.

I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you, man. I've been hearing that they take months, not weeks. :( I'm sure it'll be well worth the wait though!
 
Thanks for checking them out, guys.



The answer from Ludwig was that they've made their hoops in the same molds for decades - basically telling me "tough". I personally think this is a bad move on their part and I'm sure it generates plenty of complaints. But, who am I to tell Ludwig how to do business. I was very unhappy w/ the kick drum until I made the mod myself. Now I couldn't be happier w/ the sound. So, all is well in the end. I'm going to order either a 20" or a 26" add-on kick this year...I don't mind doing the mod again on another pair of hoops.



Ha! I noticed that afterward, too. Good eye!
Thanks Pat! Time to get to work on my "hands, grooves, and fills". And, what a great family to be a part of!



For sure...Ludwig is *the* classic American drum company, as far as I'm concerned. Nothing else sounds like Ludwig drums. Thinking back on the drums I've tried out, this was my favorite sound. Maybe it was all those hours of listening to Bonzo, Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell, etc. - while other kids were headbanging to Nirvana?

I actually agree about the looks of the hardware. The DW stands and dogbones hide the drums quite a bit and look pretty chaotic. I guess I chose utility over aesthetics. I can set two stands down and all of my cymbals and my 12" tom are in place without a fuss. I wish it looked better...but it is pretty simple to setup.



I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you, man. I've been hearing that they take months, not weeks. :( I'm sure it'll be well worth the wait though!

Dear Zambizzi,

There is something I have to explain to clarify some things here. Remo have a big lips on the edge of their head that is why you need to do a 45 deg angle to allow the hoops to sit properly on the head. But if you do that angle cut and use Evans head, the hoops is loose on the head bed and that produce unstable hoops.

The real problem is not Ludwig, it's Remo, there the only brand that need such a recess on the hoops to fit properly, and once done acordingly to their specs, it make the hoops not perfect for other brands.
 

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Funny thing is I was just thinking how cool it looked and inovative. Tomaatoe tomoootoe.

So... Back to Ludwigs again. ;) The kit looks great. Nice color and wood grain. The badges look cool too.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but everytime I see one of your kits the hardware just looks like a train wreck. The dog bones go every which way and really clutters up the overall beauty of the kits you've owned.

I'd sell off the double tom stands and get a couple of 9000 cymbal stands and run clamps off of them for tom mounts and addition cymbals/percusion.

I dunno. Maybe it's just me.

Again, that's a great looking kit, and I sure don't mean to take any wind out of your sails.

Take care.
 
Dear Zambizzi,

There is something I have to explain to clarify some things here. Remo have a big lips on the edge of their head that is why you need to do a 45 deg angle to allow the hoops to sit properly on the head. But if you do that angle cut and use Evans head, the hoops is loose on the head bed and that produce unstable hoops.

The real problem is not Ludwig, it's Remo, there the only brand that need such a recess on the hoops to fit properly, and once done acordingly to their specs, it make the hoops not perfect for other brands.

I don't know Frank, I tried Evans too and the problem was just as bad, with the hoops. I tried Aquarian, too - thinking that their shorter collars and (supposedly) easier seating heads would help - no luck.

I did try the Evans BD heads I have after making the modification and they seated just fine. In fact, those are the heads I used out on the back deck for testing, while I ran the router over the hoops.

To the eyes, Evans and Remo look just about the same and they seat the same on my bass drum now.

I guess I just got lucky and didn't cut too much away, allowing for both brands?

Do you do a relief cut on your hoops? If I remember, the ones I had were straight and didn't have one. They seated just fine though.
 
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Sweet kit Zambizzi, I love the 100 yr. aniver. badges very classy.

you can't. go wrong with black & chrome.

Congrats,
Bonzolead

P.S. I also like the 12,16 combo
 
Awesome kit!
One of my favorite finishes too.

I like the 12-16 sizes too, it works great.

Not real surprised about the delivery time. My orders usually take about 4 weeks (most of my stuff has been assembled by Mary. Thank you Mary!).

It's funny though, I just got some new BD hoops about a month ago (Arctic Glitter & I put Silver Sparkle on the outside mmmmm!) and I didn't have a problem at all.

I use Ludwig heads and Remo heads, and they both went on fine with the (new & the 07 RS inlay for the RS kit) hoops.

I do the "pull it a little" in a spot or two to get the hoop (since it flexes and is prone to the weather) to sit flush with the very edge of the hoop on the head, but I didn't have the raised glue spot on the head (or the dreaded "bump" in the film).

I HAVE had the glue and the bump problem happen though, and took the heads back as defective & got replacements (which is fun on a 28" head).

But the last few I've had were fine, and so was the Remo Ebony 26 I got a little while back.

I'd say it was a Remo problem (like Frank suggested) and maybe the Evans head had too much glue or something too?--who knows, there's always a screwy head somewhere along the lines.

But, if you fixed the problem, that's great and you never have to worry about it again.

Ludwig heads do seem to take a while to play in.
I found if you put it on, tune it up, and then stand on it, then tune it up and stretch it some more, they sound pretty cool (for quite a while too). The more stretched they get the warmer they sound, but they retain the crispness.

One other thing I found on Ludwig's heads is that if the head gets a dent in it, it doesn't seem to affect the tone of the head like some other brands.

But, I too like the good 'ol coated Ambassador (try a smooth white on the bottom...ooooohhh what a sound! :) ) on the batters of everything (even on my 26's).

A BB with the 100th badge too! BONUS!

I just watched the Ludwig 100th DVD over the weekend, pretty dang cool stuff.
DW's product DVD's are nice to look at all the shiny gear, but this was different altogether.
Makes you proud to be "part of the family". You play Ludwig, so you know.
Not that other brands can't sound good/great or whatever, but there's just something special about driving a Ludwig.

It's 34 years for me--hmmmm, I think I'll need a new kit to celebrate the 35th next year!!

That's totally acceptable reasoning, she can't argue with that!!

Have years of fun with it Zam!!!
 
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